Market empowerment

31 August 2007

The name “Balintawak” evokes lively images: pre-dawn loading of fruits and vegetables, buyers’ big bayongs and sturdy boots, noisy alleys, endless haggling regardless of the weather outside, and of course, great bargains.

“But just because it’s a public market doesn’t mean we should operate under a palengke mentality.” Cynthia Lacsamana Africa, officer-in-charge of the North Diversion Market and Development Corp.—one of the eight markets in the Balintawak row—says.

It was only an act of filial piety when, in 2002, Cynthia, a brother and another sister agreed to take on the management of the market upon their father’s retirement. Her dad had been managing NDMDC, leasing out slots to vendors and supervising the way they conducted their own businesses, since 1984. The entire family had seen how devoted the old man was, dealing with the business’ challenges that were as diverse as the goods peddled on their grounds.

Cynthia felt she must take a break from her own career—she was a pharmacist by profession, managing her own pharmaceutical company—and put things in order. She knew there were many problems hounding the business and she wanted them sorted out. “Gusto kong sinupin ang negosyo to make my father happy.”

Five years later, Cynthia says she has never regretted her decision. In fact, she has totally given up her own profession to focus on the market. The best part of the job is the interaction with the people there, whom she describes as “very real.”

Entrenched evils

Cash is king, indeed, but in a public market, its supremacy is perhaps more pronounced than ever. All transactions here are cash-based and, on first impression, petty. This liquid character unfortunately also breeds corruption and bribery between and among tenants and the corporation’s own employees.

When Cynthia and her siblings stepped into the business, they found out that some irregular practices had become so prevalent. For example, vendors who violated safety or sanitation guidelines merely fished out a crumpled bill from their pockets to make an employee (who was supposed to ensure tenants’ compliance) look the other way. Some also sub-leased their slots to yet other vendors—at exorbitant rates, of course—and in doing so affected the prices of their goods, and eventually, the price level in the entire area. There were overdue rentals, accounts that had not been moving for months and even years. The paperwork was haywire—if ever there were records of tenants and transactions to begin with.

These ills were systemic and formidable. Upon taking in the actual situation she must contend with, Cynthia had only one thought: “Get to work.”

Valiant overhaul

There was nothing that irritated Cynthia more than the words “It has always been done this way.” Immediately, she started introducing her own way of doing things—shaped, she believed, by the precision and the discipline she acquired in her own field. Championing transparency and order, she booted out employees with shady records—from the collectors up to a non-performing manager—and brought in new people. Some of her new employees were loyal staff from her pharmaceutical days.

She painstakingly created files for each of the company’s tenants—in color-coded folders—that contained personal information and history, impressions during the one-on-one interview (conducted by Cynthia herself) as well as payment records. Each folder had a back up, which was physically secured in a file cabinet under lock and key.

She also met with those who were having difficulty delivering payments. NDMDC discouraged bulk or monthly rental payments—it preferred daily instalments of about P50, so long as the trade was kept alive and going. Regular meetings were instituted, first among the staff to determine problem areas and explore solutions, and then among the tenants to advise them of documentation required of them, resolve conflicts or explain new guidelines.

Cynthia, a believer in the inseparability of work and personal life, encouraged her own staff to attend recollections and other talks. She spoke with them occasionally about their individual circumstances, getting to know them and advising them that the same transparency and order they preached at work should also be practiced in their lives at home. She wanted them to live well and to lead their families through good examples.

Persistent monsters

While it sounds so noble and easy on paper, it’s far from a smooth ride. Cynthia is the first to say that she has had to project the tough lady image to those vendors who, because of their lowly stations and lack of education, had a difficult time appreciating the professional approach adopted by the market’s new management. “You can’t tell them what to do and then turn your back, confident they will do as you say. You have to stay and make sure they know you’re watching them.” And, indeed, NDMDC has four cameras installed in the market’s strategic places. Goings-on can be observed from Cynthia’s office.

She has also had to balance her concern for the continuity of her tenants’ businesses with her principles against corruption by some local government officials. She is saddened by this, as well as by unfounded allegations that NDMDC, lumped along with the other (and less deliberately managed) markets in Balintawak, is committing the same ills that Cynthia has tried to minimize, if not eliminate.

Saving grace

It’s a daily battle, Cynthia says, but it’s worth fighting. She and her siblings, inspired by the commitment their father has shown and driven by their desire to help the poor help themselves, don’t mind the occasional setbacks as long as they keep seeing individuals improving their work habits and consequently achieving a little more comfort in their lives.

“Everything will follow,” Cynthia doesn’t tire of telling this to her staff and tenants alike. “Just work hard. Your needs will be taken care of, because it is a natural consequence of finding dignity in work, whatever it is.


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Water under this troubled bridge